"Lucius, stand," I instructed
my sitting
Boxer, gently tugging with my left hand on the end of his chain training collar,
where it meets the leash, while moving my right hand, palm down, away from his
nose, showing him the direction he was to move.

Lucius must've wondered what
in heaven's name I meant. He had learned the commands for sit, down, come and
stay several years earlier. But stand? "Where did that
come from, mom? Just why are you trying to teach me new tricks at this late
stage in my life?" his quizzical expression was asking me.

Tentatively, he started to get
up in response to my hand movements. I started praising him right away, in a non-stop cheery
patter, assuring him he was headed in the right
direction. Before he could collapse backinto a sitting position, I swiftly tucked my left
hand under his stomach and at the same time I let go of the collar and balanced
him under his neck with my right hand as I suddenly became silent.
I let him stand for just a second, with only his brain wheels spinning as I
removed my supporting hands an inch from his body. Then I lavished Lucius with praise
and stroked him vigorously.

Why did Lucius and I do this
exercise? Because he had asked me “What now?” with his eyes, and I had responded
with a new word, a new hand gesture, a new little tug, and the common-sense
courtesy of actually positioning his body with my hands -- molding him as if he
were a sculpture -- in order to teach him a new command.

We repeated the drill several times from the
sitting position. Each time he made any move with his feet (i.e. made a
mistake), I instantly said the correcting tone “eh” (think of the word “get”
without the “g” and “t”), quickly followed by more verbal praise as I fixed his
mistake for him. This correcting tone means “oops” and resembles the sound a
mother dog makes to her puppies when she is letting them know they did something
wrong. (Mother dogs don’t scold their pups. They just erase mistakes gently and
then move on with encouragement.)

From now on, when Lucius visits Dr. Tharp
and is asked to “stand” immobile for his rabies shot and an exam, the good vet
will surely want to pin a Model Canine ribbon on him.

The method of obedience
training I use with Lucius -- hands-on-the-dog instruction, a quick correcting
tone (if needed) followed by ecstatic approval of every right position (which
the handler has put the dog in), and nary a “no” or a scolding word or
punishment -- was discovered and perfected by a Colorado woman named Judy
Moore. With her self-published book, Dogs Deserve Dialogue, and
its 90-minute companion video (Right
Solution Dog Training). Moore makes available
to every dog owner a simple, practical, compassionate method for training man's
best friend.

But that's just the cake.
Here's the icing: Moore's system (which will hereafter be referred to as
Dialogue) is so sure-fire that it can also be used on the most aggressive,
destructive, terrorized/terrorizing dog, even one who is so beyond the pale
that other trainers recommend the dog be locked in a crate for life or put to
death.

The reason Moore's regimen is
so successful with out-of-control dogs is that it eliminates the underlying
causes of bad behavior by giving crazed-with-fear or crazed-with-anger
dogs such confidence, self-esteem, and peace of mind -- not to mention such fun!
-- that they have no desire to act out their fears or aggressions any
longer. That’s because they no longer feel fear or anger.

Unbelievably, mastering Dialogue takes only
a few minutes a day. The initial instruction begins
only after the handler/owner has studied and practiced on his own until
he is absolutely sure he understands the steps and can teach them to the dog in
such a way that he makes the dog feel better about himself. After that, dog and
handler need do only 10 to 15 minutes of daily practice of these exercises,
which are the components of Dialogue and the structure for teaching the dog to
respond to any situation with trust.

Blind-and-deaf Teddy Bear (on couch) was rescued from the Los Angeles pound
after the date he was supposed to have been euthanized. The two dogs who Judy
Moore is embracing have their own rescue tales.

The dog owner who decides to
implement Moore's method has to be willing to lay aside all preconceived ideas
and previous training methods. He also has to be willing to banish his own fears
-- for instance, his belief that he lacks the ability needed to be a successful
dog handler. The handler's confidence level is always picked up by,
and passed along to, his dog.

Exactness (following all Moore's instructions to the letter, and insisting in a
kind way that the dog do the same) and consistency (refusing to revert to other
methods, and sticking with Dialogue and only Dialogue, day in and day out) are
two ingredients in this recipe for success.

Besides exactness and consistency, patience
is another prerequisite. In fact, the human holding
the leash ends up developing these latent qualities in himself, progressing as
much, if not more, than his canine companion by the time the training "takes."

Amazing changes in a dog’s behavior sometimes come in a matter
of hours or days. That’s not to say that behavior modification is a quick fix,
though. It usually takes at least six months – sometimes more -- of regular
practiceto ingrain
Dialogue in both owner and dog to the point where the latter responds
automatically to each and every command, even off-leash.

According to Moore, who has
been rescuing and rehabilitating abused, traumatized, and abandoned dogs for
half a century, "the key lies not in controlling dogs but in conversing with
them."

Here's what she means: the
very first step in her training method teaches the dog always to look to the
human handler for information before acting.
Then the handler responds with simple instructions that the dog can quickly
learn. That's what Dialogue is all about: answering the dog’s questions.

Indeed, Dialogue – that is, Q&A --
is a way of life, 24/7, for both owner and dog. And what is the dog asking
24/7? Moore says he’s wondering, "Am I all right? Am I doing okay?" The owner,
through praise of his dog, is answering, “Yes, you’re just fine. You’re doing
great.” Such constant reassurance leaves no place for scolding.

Moore has found, through
implementing Dialogue, that there is no such thing as a bad dog. There is only
bad -- inappropriate or uncooperative -- dog behavior, and it has only one
cause.

The sole cause of bad behavior
is that a dog naturally acts upon inborn information, or instinct, if he has not
been taught the rules for living in man's world. As a result of living clueless
in the human world and being constantly berated for following his instincts, a
dog can easily become frustrated, anxious and stressed. In turn, those feelings
develop into disruptive, destructive, and even aggressive behavior. Such
“dangerous” dogs are often “thrown away.”

Moore's Dialogue training
method evolved from her efforts to discover ways to restore emotional stability
and confidence to these abandoned and traumatized dogs, so that they could be
successfully adopted and live happily ever after.

As I see it, Dialogue sets high standards
for dog owners, but they are achievable. It asks the owner to always see his dog
as innocent, to always voice approval of his dog’s good behavior, and to always
encourage his dog. Not surprisingly, the owner finds that his dog responds by
showing forth that innate (if previously latent) innocence -- by acting good.

In
the past two years of conversing via e-mail with Judy Moore, I've noticed
qualities in both her and her method of dog training that I cannot help but
conclude come straight from the Divine -- which is why I'm writing this article
for the spiritually inspired www.all-creatures.org
website! Among these divine qualities are intelligence, perseverance, patience,
and the most pure, unconditional love for each dog.

The
one quality that clients remark upon most is Moore's endless patience with the
dogs. When teaching a dog a new command, she gently and calmly goes over it
again and again, without a hint of reproach, until the dog understands what he
is being asked to do. It never occurs to her to blow her cool, no matter how
dense or ditzy the dog appears to be. She expects all humans who learn Dialogue
to practice the same patience with their dogs.

Furthermore, Moore understands that patient practice “makes
perfect.” As the Bible counsels in no uncertain terms:
" ... let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing" (James 1:4). Certainly, Dialogue-trained dogs lack nothing!
Their feeling of wholeness, of complete well-being, gives them a poised and
peaceful demeanor.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote in her radical, unorthodox book
on spirituality, "Observation, invention, study, and original thought are
expansive..." and growth-promoting (Science and Health p. 195). These
four habits characterize Moore's equally radical, unorthodox approach to dog
training. Indeed, they are what enabled her to
create the method called
Dialogue.

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